Person of the Year 2001 (December 2001)
content.time.com

... Mayor of the World

Sixteen hours had passed since the Twin Towers crumbled and fell, and people kept telling Rudy Giuliani to get some rest. The indomitable mayor of New York City had spent the day and night holding his town together.

He arrived at the World Trade Center just after the second plane hit, watched human beings drop from the sky and -- when the south tower imploded -- nearly got trapped inside his makeshift command center near the site.

Then he led a battered platoon of city officials, reporters and civilians north through the blizzard of ash and smoke, and a detective jimmied open the door to a firehouse so the mayor could revive his government there.

Giuliani took to the airwaves to calm and reassure his people, made a few hundred rapid-fire de
cisions about the security and rescue operations, toured hospitals to comfort the families of the missing and made four more visits to the apocalyptic attack scene. ...